If this is as minor as you claim it is, I wonder why she would even be charged in the first place, considering how so many more serious cases of voting fraud and cheating go undetected and unprosecuted around the country.
She wanted to run for State Representative in an area she didn't happen to live in. The law says you have to live in your district to run. She committed fraud in order to fake residency. It wasn't about stealing an election but it's still fraud.
If this is as minor as you claim it is, I wonder why she would even be charged in the first place, considering how so many more serious cases of voting fraud and cheating go undetected and unprosecuted around the country.
I'm not sure - you'd have to ask the prosecutors. But I'm also not sure that I agree that it's minor. Her mother is an elections official, so even while the underlying issue -- whether or not she lives in her district -- seems pretty minor, it's a big deal that a candidate for office and an elections official might conspire to corrupt the voter registration process.